Picturing the Molecules of Life

By Rebecca Deusser

Posted 04.22.03

NOVA

From Watson and Crick to today's molecular biologists, researchers rely on X-ray diffraction images to deduce information about of the molecules of life. Where once these images were blurry and black and white, today X-ray diffraction specialists feed data into computer programs that generate colorful 3-D images. As the technology has improved, scientists have also tackled ever more complex biochemical structures, from RNA to ribosomes. The resulting images reveal clues about their structures, their interactions with other molecular structures, and their role in human genetics. Here, see some of the most significant images of the past century.

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